Commentary: The Journey Inward

< Jared’s final thoughts on the pattern. >

Any scriptural passage may be interpreted literally, allegorically, morally, or anagogically (mystically). Heretofore, we have interpreted the Davidic pattern according to the first three disciplines. Might we also suggest an anagogical reading that does not center in the historical past or historical future, but in the transcendence of time and the eternal. This includes but is not limited to the paradox found in the following pairs of opposites (placed in a Davidic format):

This type of mystical interpretation looks beyond the pairs of opposites. As the poet William Blake notably pointed out: “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.” Therefore, a whole new set of Davidic titles is also required to get our minds focused on man’s inward spiritual state. This fourth level of interpretation should be able to take us to the transcendental center and not simply to another point on the physical circumference.

The general “gnostic” ideals, principles, and terms attached to this interpretation suggests a chosen divine destiny that is inherent in all mankind, i.e., there is no such thing as a being who is not extraordinary. This providence consists of an “inward” journey of descent (CD), initiation (EFFE), and return (DC). The Davidic formula also suggests a psychological birth (AB) and rebirth to life (BA). This further connotes “that life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences, but rather it is a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite sublime plan.”

A — InnocenceOur original state of innocence/slumbering: We are unaware, unknowing, and mostly in ignorance of the divinity that is deep within us.

B — Awakening
Inner feelings of being awakened from a deep sleep: and having a great yearning, and desire to approach and explore. If one has the courage to continue on to the potential of something better, there will be overwhelming incredible and sometimes terrifying experiences that changes one’s existing paradigm.

C — DualityInner feelings of being separated, unconnected, fragmented, and alone in the world (error, darkness). Terrifying, dark, chaotic encounters within the pyche. Deep retreat in time and space. The world does not communicate to us and we do not communicate to the world. This “Waste Land” condition (described by T.S. Eliot) constitutes a disassociation of spirit from nature.

D — Connected
Inner feelings of being reunited, connected, together with those in heaven. A wholeness manifested (truth, light). This healing can only be attained by the light/spirit of: 1) spontaneous compassion, 2) a passion or lust for life, and 3) enduring sublime love. Everything is accomplished by the impulse of one’s own true nature; nothing borrowed, nothing counterfeited.

F — Realization
Inner feelings of receiving comfort, grace, beauty, and wonder. “Privation and suffering alone open the mind of a man to all that is hidden to others.” These centering harmonious feelings are reached through the noble experience of joy in a world of suffering.

F’ — At-one-nessReceiving the full measure of the stature of Christ (within). The accent is on experience, “an experience of identity with the Godhead.” To then be able to nobly speak and do, “The Father and I are one.” [JS]

E’ — Intimacy
Becoming perfect, fully confident in one’s standing/relationship with the lord, comforted in all things. Independent of the feelings others place on you; no malice expressed and nor offense taken.

D’ — Fullness
Feelings of being full of light with the power and courage to bestow blessings to fellow men. Gratitude and awe of the Infinite. These new powers are experienced both in control over one’s own situation and influence with others. One becomes a creative center of the life/light process.

C’ — UnionFeelings of clarity: Living in the present and seeing the world as it really is: perfect, whole and complete just as they are. Our bodies are at one with this world; both of which constitute an “oasis in the desert of infinite space.”

B’ — Fully Awakened
A rebirth to life. All desires and all yearnings are fulfilled. We are re-introduced back into the Garden.

Four trenchant examples of that would serve to illustrate this anagogical methodology are from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, both in style and in prose.

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson from “Self Reliance”

If we cannot at once rise to the sanctities of obedience and faith, let us at least resist our temptations; let us enter into the state of war, and wake Thor and Woden, courage and constancy, in our Saxon breasts. This is to be done in our smooth times by speaking the truth. Check this lying hospitality and lying affection. Live no longer to the expectation of these deceived and deceiving people with whom we converse.

A — Say to them, O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth’s.

B — Be it known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law.
I will have no covenants but proximities

C — I shall endeavour to nourish my parents,
to support my family,
to be the chaste husband of one wife,

D — but these relations I must fill after a new and unprecedented way.

E — I appeal from your customs.
I must be myself.
I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you.

F — If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier.
F’ — If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should.

E’ — I will not hide my tastes or aversions.
I will so trust that what is deep is holy,
that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints.

D’ — If you are noble, I will love you;
if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions.

C’ — If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions;

B’ — I will seek my own.
I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly.

A’ — It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men’s, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth.

Does this sound harsh to day? You will soon love what is dictated by your nature as well as mine, and, if we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. But so you may give these friends pain. Yes, but I cannot sell my liberty and my power, to save their sensibility. Besides, all persons have their moments of reason, when they look out into the region of absolute truth; then will they justify me, and do the same thing.

A — I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional.

B — The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may.

C — The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain.

D — To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.

E — Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment.

F — Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought.

E’ — A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.

D’ — Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts:

C’ — they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

B’ — Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side.

A’ — Else, to morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

C — ‘Tis a brave master, Let it have scope, Follow it utterly, Hope beyond hope;
High and more high, It dives into noon, With wing unspent, Untold intent;

D — But ’tis a god, Knows its own path, And the outlets of the sky.

E — ‘Tis not for the mean, It requireth courage stout, Souls above doubt, Valor unbending;
Such ’twill reward, They shall return More than they were, And ever ascending.

F — Leave all for love; —

E’ — Yet, hear me, yet, One word more thy heart behoved, One pulse more of firm endeavor,
Keep thee to day, To morrow, for ever, Free as an Arab Of thy beloved.

C’ — Cling with life to the maid;

D’ — But when the surprise, Vague shadow of surmise, Flits across her bosom young Of a joy apart from thee, Free be she, fancy free, Do not thou detain a hem, Nor the palest rose she flung From her summer diadem.

A’ — Though thou loved her as thyself,

B’ — As a self of purer clay, Tho’ her parting dims the day, Stealing grace from all alive,
Heartily know, When half gods go, The gods arrive.

A — InnocenceI have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is,

B — The Call – An AwakeningAnd whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral, dressed in his shroud,

C — The Journey Inward and Backward (Duality)And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times,

D — Connected with LightAnd there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero,
And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe,
And any man or woman shall stand cool and supercilious before a million universes.

E — Gnosis (Experiential)And I call to mankind, Be not curious about God,
For I who am curious about each am not curious about God,

E’ — Intimacy (Passion / Compassion / Comfort / Peace)No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.

F — Realization (Mind)I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least,

F’ — At-one-ness (Heart)Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.

C’ — The Journey Outward and Forward (Union)Why should I wish to see God better than this day?

D’ — Full of LightI see something of God each hour of the twenty four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God,
and in my own face in the glass;

A’ — Christ Consciousness
I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God’s name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.

B’ — Bliss – Fully Awakened
And as to you death, and you bitter hug of mortality . . . . it is idle to try to alarm me.

RECAP of the internal thematic structure of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass:

AFA

A. the soul is not more than the body,
the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is,

F. I hear and behold God in every object,
F. . . . who there can be more wonderful than myself.

A. I find letters from God dropped in the street,
and every one is signed by God’s name,

BEEB

B. And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral, dressed in his shroud,

E. And I call to mankind,
Be not curious about God,

E. I am at peace about God
and about death.

B. And as to you death, and you bitter hug of mortality . . . . it is idle to try to alarm me.

CDDC

C. . . . may purchase the pick of the earth,
And to glance with an eye . . . confounds the learning of all times,

D. . . . the young man following it may become a hero,
a hub for the wheeled universe,
And any man or woman shall stand cool and supercilious before a million universes.

D. I see something of God each hour . . . each moment . . .
In the faces of men and women I see God,
and in my own face in the glass;